A Happy Ending?
by xXMarmiteluverXx
Summary: An additional chapter to end the book. Originally written as a school assignment by refurbished somewhat to make it a bit better  hopefully  :D What happens to Christopher next?


**After reading 'The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night Time' We were told to write an additional chapter for the end of the book. The body of this was written when I was in year 8 but I have rewritten most of it! Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, that's down to the wonderful Mark Haddon :)**

And I did My A levels in a small room in my school and in the room there were two desks, one that was big and rectangle and one that was smaller and more square, with crossed metal legs that could fold and the table could be put away like I had seen the caretakers do after lessons when they needed to use a room for something important. Also there were two chairs in the room and three windows which showed the outside of the school where there was an old lady walking a dog and the dog reminded me of the dog lying in the middle of Mrs Shears' garden and I could picture the garden fork sticking into the dog and I remembered that the dog was dead and that father had killed the dog and that made me sad like the picture that Siobhan had shown me when I first met her and I did not want to remember anymore. Then I took a deep breath and doubled 4s in my head because I am good at that and I had got to 4294967295 which is 4 to the power of 16 and then I didn't feel so bad any more and I was ready to do my A levels. I sat down at the folding table which faced a clock with black numbers and a white face and I was worried because I knew that the A levels were important and then I decided not to be worried as I had seen 4 red cars in a row on the way to school which meant it was a good day and because I am good at my subjects I am going to get all As and go to university an be an astronaut. The A levels took two hours each and I did three in mathematics and physics and further mathematics because those are the subjects that you need to do the course I have applied to and also because I am good at those subjects and I like to do them. Siobhan says that I am good at those subjects because I am logical and can think through things in a clear way which some other people find difficult. The reverend Peters was the invigilator in my exams and he told me to start and told me the instructions and also told me to put my pen down when the exam was finished. Because the exams took so long I was allowed to have a break but the reverend Peters had to stay with me in case I told everyone the answers, which I would not have done because in the rules for the exams it says that you can't. In my break I had a drink of Ribena and two pink wafer biscuits and then I went back into the little room and did the rest of my exams.

When I got home I was very pleased because I had done my exams and I had answered all the questions and I was sure that they were write because I had studies hard for the exams and Siobhan said that she was sure I had done well and I trust Siobhan because she tells me the truth. For dinner I had three rashers of bacon and four bits of broccoli because I am meant to try and eat five sorts of fruit and vegetable every day to keep healthy and to drink I had strawberry flavoured milkshake. At 4.23pm I heard father come in the front door and I didn't want to see him so I tidied up my meal and I went into the lounge and I watched one of my Blue Planet videos about king penguins and how they get through the cold winters when there is lots of wind and there is no sunlight because of how the sun hits the earth because it is on an axis which is tilted which is why we have seasons. When the video had finished, I went up to my room and I went on my computer and I played The Eleventh Hour.

Later, at 6.12pm, mother came in and I was still in my room and she came in to see me but when she opened the door I thought it was father and I had a panic and I couldn't breath properly because my head couldn't concentrate because it was too busy thinking about father and what he did to Mr Shear's dog. But it wasn't father and she sat next to me and told me it was ok and father was watching the news on the television in the lounge and that I didn't have to worry because he understood that I didn't want to speak to him and he would only come to see me If I asked for him. And I asked how she knew this and she said that last night they had had a talk about what had happened and that he had promised her but that also mother and I were going to move to another house and live not with father, but no until I had got my results back and had passed my exams and could go to university and be an astronaut. This was because mother and father had had a big fight about Mr Shears and they could not live together anymore because they did not love each other any longer. And I said that I didn't want to move because I liked my room and my school and Siobhan was here and that why couldn't father move instead and mother said than that would not be possible because the house was fathers because he had paid for it and anyway I wouldn't need to go to school after my results and that I could still write to Siobhan and come and visit and also she promised that I could decorate my room exactly the same. So I was not so worried about moving and I told mother that and she gave me a smile which meant she was happy. And then she asked about my exams and I told her about the questions and she said 'I'm impressed' and then she gave me a new game to say well done for doing my exams and I played on it until I went to bed.

And while we were waiting for my exam results, mother and I went to look at lots of universities to see where I could go and some of them were very busy and my chest went tight and I had to go twice into a toilet to calm down and I counted the prime factors of 17 and then I felt better and mother was proud of me because I have got a lot better that I was last year and she is happy that I can go to university and not be scared or worried but I am a little bit scared and worried but I did not tell mother that because I told Siobhan and she said that to be a little bit scared is fine and that sometimes people didn't want to be told that you were worried because that would make them worried so I didn't tell mother because I didn't want her to worry and because I was only a little bit worried and not a lot. When I had been round 4 universities I decided that I would go to Swansea and for that I need to get 3 As and I had to apply late because I was not going to go to university but now I am so the school phoned up the university to give me a reference which tells them how good you are so that they want to let you in and my reference was good and they gave me and offer which meant that if I got my 3 As then I would be able to get into the university. And then mother and I went to look at houses so we would be able to live in Swansea near to the university and we found a nice house that looked over the sea and from the room that I had chosen to be my bedroom I could see the waves washing up over the beach which reminded me of one of my blue planet videos and that made me calm. Mother put a deposit on the house and we went back to Swindon to get all our things tidied up and to sort out the move to the new house. I wanted to say good bye to Siobhan and so we went and had an ice cream and I had strawberry which is one of my favourites and Siobhan had rum and raisin which I don't like because it has two different tastes and they are all mixed and the one she had had raisins in.

On the 20th of August I got my A level results and I got an A in mathematics and an A in further mathematics and an A in physics and so I can go to university which is good because then I can become and astronaut and go into space. Mother was very proud of me and everyone was smiling, even father which he doesn't do so much nowadays because he is always looking sad. And I talked to father though mother was also there so that I didn't feel threatened by father because of what he did Wellington the dog and because of the lies he told me about mother being dead. He told me he was very pleased I got such good results and I said thank you because that is what you say if you are being polite and I thought that I should be polite because father was being polite and also because mother was in the room and I'm never not polite when mother is there. And after we had a little talk about the future and what I would do I asked him politely to leave me alone because I was quite tired out from all the excitement and he said ok and gave me a little hug that made me panic a little bit but it was only short and I think it was to say that he didn't mean any harm and that he hoped I would trust him again in the future and so I didn't say anything because I know that mother would be upset with me and it would be rude.

I was only in my second week at university when I came home to find a newspaper article on the kitchen table. I found this strange because of a number of different reasons. Firstly because I was in mother's house and mother doesn't read newspapers because she says that she learns enough about news in her job and doesn't want that to become part of her leisure time also. Secondly, because it was only 4.57pm and mother does not finish work until 5.00pm and it takes her between 30 and 50 minutes to get home depending on the traffic and so she could not be home because she should still be at work. Thirdly, the room smelt faintly of aftershave which mother does not use because it is for men and she wears perfume which has a very different smell. Fourthly, there was a scribbled note in a scrawled hand lying next to the article which read; _So sorry, all my condolences. _I recognised the writing as father's which meant that he had been in the house which was entirely possible because he had a set of keys just in case he was needed if mother was away or ill or if we got locked out.

I sat down on a kitchen chair and wondered briefly whether father was still in the house and decided that he couldn't be because he would have heard me by now and come and said something but also because him and mother do not really like to speak to each other so he wouldn't want to stay just in case she came home. I decided to read the article:

_Closure of a section of the M4 in the early hours of this morning after an accident involving an articulated lorry and a pedestrian resulted in 3 more cars being his and 2 people injured. The pedestrian, a man in his late forties, has been identified by the police as a Mr Shears, resident of Swindon. The lorry driver responsible for the collision claims that Mr Shears simply 'appeared' in front of his vehicle and it was 'too late to break in time or even swerve to avoid him' Police are investigating how the man came to be on the side of the motorway. The other injured people, the driver and passenger of the first car, which collided with the lorry after it stopped, having his Mr Shears, have been taken to the local hospital where their injuries are being dealt with. The occupants of the other two cars have suffered from whiplash but are other wise unharmed. The police were able to clear the crash and reopen the motorway by the rush hour, meaning…_

I don't know how long I sat there, taking in that information but it must have been a long time as I snapped out of my reverie when I heard the door click open and the squeak as it swung open. I did not move. I could not move. Mother walked into the room and I was just sat there, frozen, clutching the article in my right hand. She said 'Christopher, what's wrong?' but I could not speak so I just put the article back on the table and stood up and walked over to the side of the room, leaving her space to read it. I saw her eyes skim over the paper, taking in the horrible information it held. Then she asked me calmly if I could please go to my room and give her some time alone so I went upstairs and played on my computer. At 9.00pm I could still hear her crying.

That was a while ago now. Now I have graduated and I have a first class degree in pure and engineering mathematics. They don't allow many more astronauts into space now because is costs an awful lot of money and you have to be really careful because people have died and they don't want to take any risks. I did apply to NASA but they sent me back a letter thanking me for my application but they weren't looking to take on any new employees at the moment. I was very upset at this because I really want to be and astronaut but then father pointed out that I could still work with things to do with space such as the instruments and satellites and so I applied for a job with British Aerospace and the accepted me and I went for an interview and it want very well and they said they looked forward to me joining the team because I had a very logical way of thinking which is what Siobhan had said before my A levels and also because I was very good at maths. So now I am very happy because I will start the job next week. Mother and father talk to each other now and although they don't live together still, we have dinner together every other night and everyone is much happier. Mother says that sometimes it takes something very sad to make people realise the good things they have in life. I think she is talking about her and father.

**Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know…**


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